BP exiting the North Sea is a big moment in the history of the industry and Scotland’s economy. It’s been a long time coming, and marks an end to over a century of petroleum activities and more than 50 years of North Sea drilling. BP’s exit cannot be explained by short term tax policy changes 🧵

BP puts North Sea business up for sale

Chief executive Meg O’Neill says the business would be ‘better positioned as part of another company’, sparking recriminations over the basin’s high tax regime

thetimes.com

"Net zero is one of the few glues that unites Labour’s coalition,” says @luketryl.bsky.social, the UK director of More in Common. “There is limited electoral benefit to ditching it and much potential harm.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Act on the evidence outside the window’: Andy Burnham urged to stick to net zero targets if he becomes PM

Burnham is coming under pressure from some to ditch net zero targets but this could be highly damaging on many levels

theguardian.com

Over 85% Britons say that climate change is responsible - strikingly this extends even across more socially conservative segments more sceptical about things like net-zero. More broadly 66% of Brits are worried about climate change.

Weird thing is most testing will show you that one of the most vote losing positions Labour could adopt is explicit anti-Net Zero signalling. This is because climate still disproportionately matters to Lab/Green voters while Lab/Reform voters don’t care either way...

Arieh Kovler@ariehkovler.com · 3w ago

It's kind of weird how watering down Net Zero has become a political litmus test in Labour. Net Zero was in the last TORY manifesto!

Why this extreme weather event should be a call to arms for climate action - @alistrathern.bsky.social for Politics Home ⬇️ www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

These heatwaves show leadership cannot mean stepping back from climate action

The UK is in the throes of our second significant heatwave of the year. It is still early summer. That fact alone ought to give us pause.

politicshome.com

Re the Aberdeen South-by election, its little surprise the Conservatives have won in a historically Tory seat or that the future of energy dominated debate. Ppl there have been badly served for years w/ successive governments watching the N Sea’s inevitable decline without a plan for their future 🧵

Wind and Solar have saved the UK £1.7bn in gas imports since the Iran war began. Record renewables pushed gas generation to historic lows in March and April. Wind and solar have now outproduced fossil fuels for 15 months straight, Carbon Brief analysis reveals. www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-win...

Analysis: Wind and solar have saved UK from gas imports worth £1.7bn since Iran war began - Carbon Brief

The UK has avoided the need for gas imports worth £1.7bn since the start of the Iran war, as a result of record electricity generation from wind and solar

carbonbrief.org

Tony Blair Institute is once again issuing press releases attacking climate policy in support of a report that seems to be mainly calling for more better managed grids and faster electrification.

Short but highly informative thread. Please read 👇

Tessa Khan@tessakhan.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Nick Robinson on the Today programme this morning was quick to repeat a misleading line about why we should support new North Sea oil & gas extraction in the UK on the grounds that it's MUCH (4x) cleaner than importing LNG. It's incorrect on several grounds: 🧵

Nick Robinson on the Today programme this morning was quick to repeat a misleading line about why we should support new North Sea oil & gas extraction in the UK on the grounds that it's MUCH (4x) cleaner than importing LNG. It's incorrect on several grounds: 🧵

NEW: Where are voters landing on the North Sea oil debate post-Iran? A quick thread on some of the fluidities and ambiguities, which I think can tell you something about polling/public opinion itself. Includes some new polling and message testing via @yougov.co.uk for @persuasionuk.bsky.social 🧵

🔴 ReCommon condemns ENI’s decision to file yet another frivolous lawsuit against the association in an attempt to silence its representatives. 👇 www.recommon.org/en/new-slapp...

New SLAPP lawsuit by ENI against ReCommon over licences awarded to the fossil fuel multinational in Palestinian waters. The organization: “This is yet another attempt to silence us; we will not back d...

Rome, April 15, 2026 – ReCommon condemns ENI’s decision to file yet another frivolous lawsuit against the association in an

recommon.org

The UK's approach to net zero sets the tone for much of the rest of the world because of the amount of "soft power" we have (the US has forfeited most of its soft power in the past year). Our continued insistence on no new oil and gas isn't bad for us, and it's good for lots of other countries.

Tessa Khan@tessakhan.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Important piece in the Guardian today about the outsized influence that the UK’s approach to fossil fuels, including approving new oil & gas fields, has on the rest of the world, especially on countries in the global South www.theguardian.com/environment/... (cont'd)

Important piece in the Guardian today about the outsized influence that the UK’s approach to fossil fuels, including approving new oil & gas fields, has on the rest of the world, especially on countries in the global South www.theguardian.com/environment/... (cont'd)

UK opening new oil and gas fields would imperil global climate goals, experts say

Climate diplomacy figures warn North Sea drilling would encourage fossil fuel exploitation by developing countries

theguardian.com

How much does an illegal war in the middle east cost?

The latest oil shock has led to a resurgence of North Sea petro nationalism. I’ve written for @the-breakdown.bsky.social on the illusion of plenty behind Reform, Tory and SNP claims that red-green wreckers are sabotaging our energy security by blocking drilling. www.break-down.org/north-sea-na...

This is a must-read thread.

Tessa Khan@tessakhan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

@edconway.bsky.social's recent piece in Sky rightly acknowledges that most of the UK’s gas reserves have already been extracted, but he also suggests that "a decent if not overwhelming amount of oil & gas" could still be pumped out, although it's harder & more expensive to extract. A few thoughts:

@edconway.bsky.social's recent piece in Sky rightly acknowledges that most of the UK’s gas reserves have already been extracted, but he also suggests that "a decent if not overwhelming amount of oil & gas" could still be pumped out, although it's harder & more expensive to extract. A few thoughts:

This is excellent from Andrew on the best approach to tackling the latest fossil fuel crisis. On the North Sea, worth bearing in mind that more than 80% of the oil produced in the UK is exported (& what's left in the NS is mostly oil) so the impact of more oil production on net imports is v limited

Andrew Sissons@acjsissons.bsky.social · 5mo ago

What can Britain actually do about an energy crisis? What did we do right and wrong in 2022, and what can we learn? Here's a thread on my new piece on what to do about an energy crisis... www.nesta.org.uk/blog/the-ene...

Despite chat about the potential windfall from N Sea oil & gas thanks to the war, the UK govt is rightly focused on support needed for the O&G workforce, which has been in decline for years as the basin matures. Its committed to creating a “world-leading” North Sea Jobs Service--some thoughts below⬇️

Tbf there are also arguments why it won’t make much difference to the tax base either. Maybe there’s a big find out there that would change that calculation, but that’s a much longer shot than the original article implies. bsky.app/profile/tess...

Tessa Khan@tessakhan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Leunig also calls the sector an important tax base. But in the aged North Sea basin, the industry relies on low tax rates for projects to be profitable. When tax rates rise, as with the 2022 WF tax, the industry claims it won’t invest and has to fire workers (despite huge payouts to shareholders) /7

More likely, the output won’t arrive for 10 years…

Tessa Khan@tessakhan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

It takes about a decade for a new North Sea licence to produce gas. For long-term insurance against security crises and dependence on a single producer, there is no better answer than renewables, which have already displaced significant volumes of LNG imports. www.renewableuk.com/news-and-res... /6

Helpfully Tim Leunig accepts as a premise that more North Sea drilling won’t make oil nor gas more affordable in the UK. But his arguments about tax and the strategic benefit of allowing more North Sea licensing are flawed in key ways (as well as in ways that James has pointed out). Long 🧵 below:

James Murray@james-bg.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This is much better than the usual ‘drill, baby, drill’ editorials. But it still overstates the case for new licenses by a sizeable margin and is guilty of a very big omission. observer.co.uk/news/busines...

Apropos of nothing, nothing at all, you should follow @tessakhan.bsky.social and @zoeavison.bsky.social. For all the hard truths and realism you need about the North Sea

Last year Scotland's only oil refinery closed at Grangemouth, leading to more than 400 job losses and threatening thousands more. I worked with @riyokoshibe.bsky.social interviewing Grangemouth workers as they faced redundancy. On Tuesday we're presenting research at MMU in Manchester. Come along!

Missions succeed when public finance delivers public value. While the UK is on track to deliver its Clean Power mission w its expansion in offshore wind, it must learn from the failures of PFI era and financialisation of utilities like Thames Water: don’t socialise risks & privatise rewards.

The green industrial revolution is coming

But the government must make sure local communities feel the benefit

newstatesman.com

6️⃣ So many benefits will flow if we break free from business-as-usual. Here is energy expert @tessakhan.bsky.social explaining why a renewables-based energy system is so superior. Yes, the Government is pushing to green our grid, but that is only around a fifth of our energy use. #NEB2025

New post just out: "Power to the People" Today we have a guest post from @jamestplunkett.bsky.social on how Labour can counter the "Britain is Broken" narrative by investing in civic life and giving people more control over their community. (Free to read) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/p...

Power to the People

How Labour can restore civic life and counter the "Britain is broken" narrative

open.substack.com

Very helpful thread ⬇️

Tessa Khan@tessakhan.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Huge news from the UK today: after UN climate talks in which there was a massive fight over language on fossil fuels, the UK government today announced that it will in fact be keeping many millions of barrels of oil & gas in the ground. Deeds rather than just words for a change! 🧵